Alien: Covenant looks like a horror thriller, but it's not quite. From the perspective of horror and thriller, "Alien: Covenant"'s performance is quite satisfactory. Some viewers say that it is not as good as the "Alien Awakening" of the same period, and this cannot be said to be unreasonable. After all, "Alien Awakening" is trying to scare the audience the whole time, and "Alien: Covenant" didn't plan to do this at all.
In fact, "Alien: Covenant" and "Alien Awakening" should not be compared together. The former belongs to the huge "alien" universe, it has its own way of integrating into this universe, and its value is judged by the entire universe; while the latter is just a pure horror thriller, its value is by scare or not. to the audience to judge.
For viewers who don't know about the "Alien" universe, director Sir Ridley Scott's "Alien" prequel series - "Prometheus" (2012) and "Alien: Covenant" (2017) - both puzzling. Both are horror-thrillers genre-wise, but horror-thriller fans are going to be disappointed - they're neither very scary nor very thrilling, certainly nowhere near Alien (1979); In terms of content, they are also full of obscure and ambiguous plots, which are very unfriendly to ordinary audiences, especially those who do not understand the "Alien" universe.
However, for "Alien" fans, these two films would look good even if they were made into documentaries. Because these two movies aren't designed to scare audiences like Alien was back then, or Alien Awakening this year; they're meant to fill in the information about the Alien universe and, more importantly, complete The previous four "Alien" movies have not been completely completed: let the Alien no longer be a pure horror symbol, lead the audience to go deep into the "Alien" under the terrifying appearance, and cause the audience to think.
First of all, in terms of completing information, "Alien: Contract" is a link between the past and the next, both filling and digging holes.
The most important pit it fills is that it explains the fate of Elizabeth Shaw, the only human survivor at the end of the previous work "Prometheus", and the fate of the human creator engineer's home planet, and clarifies the prequel series of the man-made man David. The position of the first protagonist.
In addition, the movie completes the alien evolution system. There are three main branches of aliens so far:
Xenomorph in the Alien tetralogy;
Deacon in Prometheus;
Neomorph in Alien: Covenant.
Of course, there are other small branches, which are not listed here.
"Alien: Covenant" also shows the birth of what may be the first Xenomorph in history to be parasitic in the human body.
But at the same time, the answer to every question given by Alien: Covenant raises more questions:
For example, where did the Motes and the Egg Sack that infect the "Covenant" colonists come from? What does it have to do with Black Liquid in Prometheus? Note that the former can hatch a white alien (Neomorph) directly from the back of the human body, while the latter will only mutate people.
Another example, how did Elizabeth become David's experimenter? Did she volunteer or was she killed?
Finally, the four racial worldviews developed since "Prometheus" - engineers, humans, androids, and aliens, the relationship between the four is still entangled in "Alien: Covenant". First of all, the relationship between humans and androids, humans and aliens has been very clear, and there is no direct relationship between engineers and androids, then there are three pairs of relationships in doubt:
First, engineers and humans: Did engineers intentionally create humans? If it is intentional, what is the purpose?
Second, engineers and aliens: There are already murals about aliens in the engineer base on LV-223 in "Prometheus", and the engineer ship that crashed on LV-426 in "Alien" is also full of alien eggs (Ovomorph), have the engineers already developed the alien from the black liquid?
Third, androids and aliens: In the 1986 "Alien 2" directed by James Cameron, the alien eggs were hatched by the alien mother; and David also has alien eggs in this film, is it a big one? Wei hatched an alien mother?
Obviously, Ridley finally caught the opportunity to expand his idea of the year, and did not want to say too much at one time. And these pits he dug have whetted the appetite of fans.
"Alien: Covenant" is busy filling the hole in the "Alien" universe, but there are some things that are not done well, such as to scare the audience, such as to shape the characters.
The horror-thriller effect of the movie, as I said before, is just average. "Alien" directed by Ridley in those years has already reached the pinnacle of horror and thriller, and he has no intention or ability to repeat the glory of the year. So we only see Ridley at the end of Alien: Covenant symbolically revisiting the claustrophobia of spaceships of the year, and the effect is just that.
And "Prometheus" and "Alien: Covenant" are both, all kinds of characters came out for a show, and in the end most of them got lunch. Even Alien: Covenant's heroine, Daniels, appears to be a stereotypically functional character with more routine than creativity. The most important thing is that most human characters are too stupid, so stupid, and black people are not such a brainless black method. The ending of the story is no surprise.
Ridley was very old, and he felt a sense of insufficiency. And it can be seen that some compromises have been made for commercial entertainment.
But Ridley is getting older, and he's still the pursing Brit. He not only wanted to improve his idea back then, but also wanted to dig deeper into this idea.
The pointer is set back to the release time of "Alien". With the rapid advancement of science and technology in the 1960s and 1970s, technological optimism pervaded, and human beings became more and more confident that they could and should dominate the earth. At this time, there were also many science fiction films that expressed concerns and reflections on this "anthropocentrism" by stripping away the centrality of human beings. For example, in "Planet of the Apes" in 1968, the status of humans and orangutans was reversed, so when all the ordinary things humans do to animals are imposed on humans themselves, they become atrocities that are hard to look at, and the irony is spontaneous. pregnancy.
Alien, released in 1979, although generally a horror-thriller film, still contained more or less satire on "anthropocentrism." In the movie, the battle between aliens and humans is a pure battle for survival, and aliens are a life that has far greater survivability than humans. In addition, aliens are deadly, but human beings' own flaws - indifference, blind obedience, and cowardice finally sounded their death knell. Comparing the two, it is really hard to see what human beings have to be proud of.
The three "Alien" films after "Alien", although none of them were directed by Ridley, were directed by James Cameron (James Cameron, David Fincher, Jean- Jean-Pierre Jeunet - also all masters or future masters. Despite their very different styles, they all capture the core of the Alien series: a reflection on the human being.
It can be said that the "Alien" movies have deep "contempt" for human beings in their bones. Most of the human characters in the "Alien" movie are disgusting, selfish, arrogant, self-righteous, and "human inferiority" is fully exposed; and Alien, as a pure, primitive, survival ability far better than human beings, Reflect the fragility of human beings. Even so, humans are still dying again and again, and the entire series is almost a show of how humans can be destroyed by their own arrogance and stupidity.
However, the four "Alien" films from 1979 to 1997 were completely different in style, and reflected on human beings from different angles and ways: "Alien" is a dark horror film, "Alien 2" is a It is an action film that satirizes politics. Alien 3 is a literary film that shows religion, and Alien: Resurrection is an action film that explores ethics.
Obviously, the four directors have their own thinking, but this thinking is not systematic.
Therefore, after taking back the "Alien" guide tube, Ridley decided to return to the starting point, shoot the prequel series, and systematically reflect on human beings by building a systematic world view.
Therefore, viewers who want to continue watching the Alien Massacre in this prequel series may be disappointed. The prequel series focuses on Ridley's understanding of humanity's relationship to the universe, has serious philosophical themes, and doesn't focus on entertainment (although it may make some compromises for commerciality).
Through "Prometheus" and "Alien: Covenant", we see the beginning of Ridley's four-racial worldview: In this worldview, engineers create humans, humans create androids, and engineers and androids Possibly created aliens.
In Ridley's system, humans are no longer central; in fact, their fate is always at stake: their creators want to wipe them out, their creators want to betray them—and their tools are aliens.
Through this system, Ridley teaches that we should no longer take the current dominance of humanity for granted. Humans are likely to be part of a wider system, and most likely not at the top. What we have now is probably owned by someone else; and it will be owned by others in the future.
Just like when David was destroying the home planet of the Engineer, the gods stood at the top of the city, watching the black water bombs fall like raindrops.
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
The achievements are unparalleled in the world, and it is expected that the gods and powers are unparalleled!
(translated by late maple)
This is really the most suffocating scene in the whole film. The scene and the lines are highly matched, reaching the height of epic.
David quoted a verse from Shelley's Ozymandias, a tribute to the pharaoh engraved on the tombstone of the Egyptian pharaoh Osmandias. Osmandis is the Greek name for Ramses II, the Egyptian pharaoh of the thirteenth century BC.
Osmandis's achievements are unparalleled, but then Shelley sarcastically said:
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Now all is gone. huge ruins,
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
There is only the desolate Gobi around the wreckage,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
The lonely yellow sand spreads into the distance, boundless.
(translated by late maple)
David's quoting of this sentence is obviously meant to satirize the engineer, even if he is the master of creation, he cannot survive the time and cannot escape the fate of destruction.
More ironically, the creator of creation, the creator of the creator, destroyed the creator.
So the smart audience should think here, engineers are still like this, what about humans?
This is the cold logic of the universe that Ridley's worldview of the four races hopes to clarify.
Humans understand this kind of logic; but its horror is not felt by ordinary people on weekdays. For example, some people who believe in the law of the jungle "the strong eat the weak" may simply because they have not experienced the taste of the weak. Will these believers of the law of the jungle still hold on to their beliefs when they go from being on the top to being trampled underfoot?
Ridley also shows a subtle causal link in this worldview. That is to say, although destruction will eventually come, it is not an accidental disaster, but is usually the result of one's own early years.
For example, engineers created biological and chemical weapons in the LV-223 base, and as a result, the base personnel were backfired; on a larger time scale, engineers created humans, which were eventually destroyed by the hands of human creator David.
Humans are the same. In "Prometheus," Harloway says lightly to David, "We created you because we can," and turns to find the meaning of his existence. This double standard will only inspire David to search for the meaning of his existence like a human, to create like a human, and finally to create an alien, the destroyer of human beings.
All in all, the conspiracy, betrayal, killing, and struggle that fill the whole film endow "Prometheus" and "Alien: Covenant" with a unique dark temperament, and this dark temperament is wrapped in "the way of heaven is constant, and cause and effect pay off." ” cold philosophical proposition. That's what fascinates me more than the horror-thriller effects of the movies, the alien origin stories, and so on.
Finally, briefly summarize the core idea of the "Alien" story:
1. Engineers and humans are fed up every day. They are either stupid or bad. Don’t look at the fact that they are going to die sooner or later.
2. And you killed yourselves yourself;
3. Alien, a creature purely for survival, is evergreen.
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